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COLLEGE STATION — The past two weeks have reminded us that, right or wrong, one game or even one play can decide a prominent college football program's future.

A 40-yard kick by Texas on Thanksgiving night meant the end of the Mike Sherman era at Texas A&M. A 60-minute beatdown on Saturday meant the Kevin Sumlin era might never arrive in Aggieland.

Prior to Houston's 49-28 loss to Southern Mississippi on Saturday, Sumlin was considered the leading candidate — by a long shot — to replace Sherman. The former Green Bay Packers boss was fired Thursday for a 25-25 record over four seasons at A&M, a perfectly mediocre run capped by a 27-25 loss to UT in the rivals' last scheduled meeting.

Had the Longhorns' Justin Tucker missed that final field goal? Sherman would still have a gig along the railroad tracks in College Station, with warnings he needed to get the Aggies' act together headed into the Southeastern Conference. Had Sumlin's Cougars prevailed and moved to 13-0 on the season, with a BCS contest to come? The Sumlin train likely would be gathering steam headed north to College Station.

Now, Sumlin continues to earn plenty of consideration from A&M, but so do Louisville coach Charlie Strong, Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and perhaps the man who put the whooping on UH, Southern Miss's Larry Fedora, who grew up in College Station. A push for Strong, Florida's defensive coordinator in its recent heyday under Urban Meyer, is surging, multiple insiders said, based on his SEC ties.

Some influential Aggies, too, grew increasingly troubled during the past days over what appeared to be the single-mindedness toward Sumlin, driven by A&M regent Jim Wilson, a Sumlin running buddy back in Houston and abroad. The idea being that A&M's football future shouldn't be determined by a sports-happy regent who tabs a coach because he gets to hang with him.

On the heels of the Cougars' big loss Saturday, it doesn't help Sumlin's cause that UH finished 5-7 last season — a worse mark than what got Sherman fired this year.

Multiple A&M insiders assured Saturday that the Aggies will go through a deliberate process of interviewing multiple candidates and try and target the best man to lead A&M into the SEC next season. The process should take “at least a few days,” one insider said.

An insider also said that A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, mostly left out of the process of A&M's move to the SEC and in the firing of Sherman (driven by A&M president R. Bowen Loftin and Wilson), will be a part of the interviewing process. Another insider said earlier in the week that it could be a matter of days or weeks before Byrne leaves the department, either through resignation or firing.

It's been a tough past week on the perception front for A&M, starting with the revelation that Byrne's chief financial officer, Jeff Toole, was ridiculing Loftin, with Toole thinking he was posting anonymously on a popular fan website (he was outed by another poster). Byrne said he handled the matter internally.

During Sherman's final A&M press conference Friday, he praised the job Toole has done (among many others) but later railed against anonymous posters on message boards because of their lack of accountability. Oh, the irony. Toole had spent much of his weblog hours razzing Loftin and defending Sherman.

A&M, at least on Saturday, helped nip the budding opinion that it's an institution with the good ol' boy system — or in this case the “running buddy” system — still operating at full throttle, with news that the Aggies intended to interview multiple men in search of a solid leader for a rugged route in the SEC.